Our God approaches, and he is not silent. Fire devours everything in his way, and a great storm rages around him.
Parallel translations
- WEB Our God comes, and does not keep silent. A fire devours before him. It is very stormy around him.
- KJV Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.
- BSB Our God approaches and will not be silent! Consuming fire precedes Him, and a tempest rages around Him.
- NKJV Our God shall come, and shall not keep silent; A fire shall devour before Him, And it shall be very tempestuous all around Him.
- NASB May our God come and not keep silent; Fire devours before Him, And a storm is violently raging around Him.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God comes openly, not silently, surrounded by fire and storm. His coming for judgment is awesome and unmistakable.
Overview
Echoing the theophany at Sinai, God arrives with devouring fire and tempest, signaling that He will no longer remain silent about His people's conduct. The imagery conveys both His holiness and the seriousness of the judgment to follow. Such language anticipates the day when Christ returns 'in flaming fire' to judge (2 Thessalonians 1:7-8).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 26
- Num 16:35Fire came out from Yahweh, and devoured the two hundred fifty men who offered the incense.
- Dan 7:10A fiery stream issued and came out from before him: thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.
- Lev 10:2Fire came out from before Yahweh, and devoured them, and they died before Yahweh.
- Matt 3:12His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor. He will gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire.”
- Mal 4:1“For, behold, the day comes, it burns as a furnace; and all the proud, and all who work wickedness, will be stubble; and the day that comes will burn them up,” says Yahweh of Armies, “that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
- Ps 97:3–5A fire goes before him, and burns up his adversaries on every side.
- Ps 68:20God is to us a God of deliverance. To Yahweh, the Lord, belongs escape from death.
- Ps 48:14For this God is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide even to death.
- Isa 65:6–7“Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will repay, yes, I will repay into their bosom,
- Exod 19:18All of Mount Sinai smoked, because Yahweh descended on it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.
- Rev 22:20He who testifies these things says, “Yes, I come quickly.” Amen! Yes, come, Lord Jesus.
- Ps 18:7–15Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations also of the mountains quaked and were shaken, because he was angry.
- Deut 9:3Know therefore today, that Yahweh your God is he who goes over before you as a devouring fire. He will destroy them, and he will bring them down before you. So you shall drive them out, and make them perish quickly, as Yahweh has spoken to you.
- Mal 3:2–3“But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like launderer’s soap;
- Ps 96:13before Yahweh; for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, the peoples with his truth.
- Heb 12:29for our God is a consuming fire.
- 2 Th 1:8–9giving vengeance to those who don’t know God, and to those who don’t obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus,
- Heb 10:28–29A man who disregards Moses’ law dies without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses.
- Ps 50:21You have done these things, and I kept silent. You thought that I was just like you. I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes.
- Isa 42:13–14Yahweh will go out like a mighty man. He will stir up zeal like a man of war. He will raise a war cry. Yes, he will shout aloud. He will triumph over his enemies.
- Nah 1:5–7The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, yes, the world, and all who dwell in it.
- 1 Kgs 19:11–12He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before Yahweh.” Behold, Yahweh passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before Yahweh; but Yahweh was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake; but Yahweh was not in the earthquake.
- Ps 83:1A song. A Psalm by Asaph. God, don’t keep silent. Don’t keep silent, and don’t be still, God.
- Hab 3:5Plague went before him, and pestilence followed his feet.
- Heb 2:3how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation — which at the first having been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard;
- Heb 12:18–21For you have not come to a mountain that might be touched, and that burned with fire, and to blackness, darkness, storm,
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 50:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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